Seventh grade students from private and public schools recently composed MCAS essays that will be scored and provided back to their schools. Some of the students used laptops to complete the assessment while other students used traditional paper and pencil. Past research suggests that the quality of student handwriting may inadvertently affect the essay score, so we are having a team of BC students transcribe the paper essays into MS Word.
In today’s training session, we will discuss the importance and suggested techniques for accurate transcription. Although, transcribing the essays is quite simple, accurately transcribing handwritten essays into a word processor requires a great deal of attention to detail.
1. Setting the correct preferences in MS Word a. Turn off Auto Correct (directions for this on page 2) b. Turn off Spell Check and Grammar Check (directions for this on page 3)
2. Create and new Word file for each essay (be sure to recheck #1) a. Students first and last name on the first line…then teacher’s name, their school name, and the date.
• For Example: Lisa Simpson
Miss Hoover
Springfield Elementary
January 28, 2008 b. Please use Times 12 pt. font (single spaced)
3. Copy the exact spelling, punctuation, and wording used by the student a. If a word is illegible:
•
•
Use context to take your best guess but make the questionable word appear in
( Formatting Palette > Font > Color [Blue] ) blue text.
If you are really not confident of making a good guess, type the word as closely as you can with all non-intelligible letters written as X ’s and the entire word placed in red text.
February 2008 page 1 of 3

BWLI Computer
Writing Study
4. Save each essay separately ( File > Save As ) using the following naming protocol:
“Student Last Name. Student First Name.Schoolname”.
• For Example: Simpson.Lisa.Springfield.doc
5. Double check your typed essay against the original paper essay
6. When you have completed and double checked all of the essays, please attach all of the Word files in an email to bebell@bc.edu.
7. Please return the original paper copies of the essays (in folder) to 323 Campion Hall.
All transcribed essays should be completed and emailed by noon on Sun. Feb. 10, 2008.
1. Once Word is open, have students open the AutoCorrect Window by: Tools > “AutoCorrect...”
2. Open the AutoCorrect Tab if it did not automatically open
3. De-select all of the AutoCorrect options. The window should look like this:
4. Close the AutoCorrect Window by selecting the OK Button (bottom right)
February 2008 page 2 of 3

BWLI Computer
Writing Study
1. Open Spelling and Grammar Preferences ( Word > Preferences… > Spelling and Grammar), located as a radial button on the left side of the screen.
2. De-select all options that provide Spelling and Grammar checks. The picture below shows how the Spelling and Grammar preferences should look when you have successfully disabled the
Spelling and Grammar checks:
3. To close the Spelling and Grammar Preferences, select the OK button and return to their document.
February 2008 page 3 of 3